What's "Bean" Going On?

Bet you thought I forgot about you?

No chance of that, dear ones. Just got wrapped up in life, and all that jazz.

So, what's this post about? One word: Beans. Or, more specifically, dried beans.

You see, I love beans, but I'm dried bean-challenged. At first I thought it was an altitude thing (living at 6,500 can convince you that everything is an altitude thing). Then I thought it was an "old beans" thing. But every time I turned around, everyone is making beans without any problems.

Every one but me, that is. If a recipe called for dried beans, I simply substituted canned beans. Problem solved. But, not really. First, canned beans have tons of added salt. Then there's the cost difference. Plus, it just really, really ticked me off that something so seemingly simply could be so darn difficult.

I set about giving every different cooking method a try (which, if you don't already know, is kind of my modus operandi). I tried overnight soaks. I tried quick boils. I tried the crock pot.

Result: Fail. Fail. Fail. So much of a fail, that one of my efforts resulted in my soaking, heating, rinsing and repeating of the same pot of beans for seven straight days. The end result: beans with the texture of cold crayons. Ewwwww!

So, I gave up. Yep, you read that right. I entirely gave up the quest. How unlike me!

Then, last week, I was reading a book and the lead character made a dish called "Senate Bean Soup." I'd never heard of it, so I looked it up (you should too - it's got an interesting history) and I was so intrigued that I decided I had to give it a try. The only problem? Every recipe called for dried beans. Well, I was determined to make a pot, so I thought I'd just sub canned white beans. But when I got to the store, I discovered that there is no such thing as canned white beans (at least, not the "right" ones). So I got crazy, bought a bag of the dried ones and went home fully expecting another dried bean failure.

But - I got lucky - the author of the recipe included a step that isn't usually detailed in recipes involving dried beans. I guess it's something that's so ingrained in other cooks that they don't bother to mention it. But it was a total game changer.

So, I shall share the "secret," the "trick," the one thing that will make dried beans work for you (& me): Baking Soda.

Yep, the key to making dried beans work is simple, cheap & found-in-every-house in the country: BAKING SODA. I researched it and there are several reasons that it works (the abrasive nature helps "open" the beans skins, it changes the pH, etc. - but you didn't come here for a science lesson, so I'll leave it at that), but just know this: It Works.

Here's how to put this information to use:
For every pound of dried beans, as 1/2 tsp. Baking Soda to the soaking water. Soak as long as the recipe recommends, or overnight if it doesn't specify.
Rinse the beans. Add 1/8 tsp. Baking Soda to whatever liquid your recipe calls for. Then follow the recipe.
It's that simple.

Now I'm in the mood for some good old Pinto Beans - so I'm off the the kitchen!

Happy cooking!

Bakin' with BACON!

Recently, I've become obsessed with Bacon. Not normal "bacon is wonderful with all things" obsessed, but "what can I do with bacon that most people don't do with it" obsessed.

I blame Bacon Fest 2013. It was filled with such promise, and while everybody - both attendees and vendors - were great, the food was, well, greatly disappointing. In fact, it was just plain BAD.

I knew I could do better. And that's what I've been working on ever since.

There are several things up my sleeve; I've got a major science experiment going on in the kitchen right now. Stay tuned for the "sizzling" developments!

High-Altitude French Bread Recipe

My previous post talked about FINALLY having success getting bread to rise. Here's the recipe that I use (at 7,200 ft):

High-Altitude French Bread

(makes 1 small loaf; double for store-sized French bread loaf)

• Pour 1 Cup WARM Water (NOT hot - hot will kill the yeast; think baby bottle temperature or just a tad warmer - about 92°-95°F) into a LARGE non-metallic mixing bowl
• Sprinkle 1/2 Tbl. (rounded) Instant Dry Yeast over the water and
• Add 1/2 Tbl. (level) Granulated Sugar

Using a wooden or silicone spoon, stir to dissolve the sugar and "wake up" the yeast. Let sit about 3 minutes to give the yeast time to get active.

When the bowl is "frothy,"

• Add 1 Cup Flour (whatever you have is fine; I used all-purpose white). Don't waste time sifting it, just dump it in.

Stir well, until the flour is absorbed and there are few lumps left. It will be runny.

• Dump another 1/2 Cup Flour right in the center,
• Sprinkle 1/2 tsp. Sea Salt over the Flour 
• Plus 1/2 Tbl. (melted) Butter-flavored Crisco (or whatever shortening you have on hand)
• Then 1/2 Cup Flour more and

Stir until all Flour is mixed in; be sure to scrape down the sides too.

Allow to rise until about double in size (approx. 1 hour). If your kitchen is chilly like mine, stick it in the oven with the light on, right under the bulb. Oh, and you don't have to cover it. First, it's not necessary, and second, you might forget when you go to turn the oven on later.

When it's risen sufficiently, stir the dough down (I know, it's depressing - but have faith, it will rise again!), and prepare to transfer to your desired baking vessel. Either butter the pan or line it with parchment paper (the best stuff in the world!) or non-stick foil. If you want, sprinkle some Yellow Cornmeal on the bottom of the pan; it will help keep the bottom from getting too brown, but it's totally optional. Shape to the pan as best you can (either use a silicone utensil or floured hands; this dough is sticky!).

Stick it back in the oven and allow to rise, about 1 more hour.

Without removing the pan - just situate it in the center of the top rack - turn on the oven to 400°F (375°F if your oven is propane like mine), and bake for 30 minutes.

Allow to cool on a rack - if you can wait that long - slice & enjoy!

*For a crispier, more golden crust, bush with an egg wash (1 beaten egg + 1 tsp water) about halfway through the second rising period. Don't wait until the end because brushing it on tends to deflate the dough somewhat.

The Yeast and I

Yesterday I woke up in the mood for some good, homemade spaghetti sauce. It's always nice when I have a plan for dinner sometime before my husband gets home, so I went with it. But - and there's always a but - I had no bread to go with it. Bummer!

You must understand, I am NOT a baker. I'm starting to make my peace with yeast (as you may have read in my Sourdough Starter posts), but I have never been able to get any of my breads to actually rise. The flavor is good, but the texture is something akin to dry cottage cheese. Add to that the additional challenge of being at high altitude (7,200 feet), and you can see why this is something that I don't try on a regular basis. Still, I decided to give it a try.

A quick search of the internet yielded several high-altitude recipes for French bread. I picked two that were very similar, required no kneading nor a bread machine, and took very little time. I started with "Recipe #2" because it called for 2 periods of rising. Then while it was doing its thing, I worked on "Recipe #1".

The results were surprising. Despite using nearly identical amounts of water, yeast and sugar, Recipe #2 rose, but Recipe #1 did not. Still, I baked the "loaves" (and I use the term VERY loosely, since I didn't have a french bread pan and they were really just pools of batter) and checked the results. Yep, #2 was somewhat fluffy inside and #1 was most definitely not. Odd.

I decided to repeat the recipes, but do them at the same time so that the water and yeast temperatures would be exactly the same. (I also decided to use standard loaf pans, since the flat, "panini" style bread really wasn't what I was after.)

The results...

#1 (left) barely rose, while #2 (right) mushroomed above the pan.

I am truly shocked that such minute differences would lead to such different rises! But, I guess yeast works in mysterious ways. As for flavor, #1 was slightly better - it had more salt and a bit of shortening. But #2 had a much better crust. I am going to combine the recipes for all future efforts and now have the perfect, high-altitude French bread recipe - yay!

And just in case you're wondering what I did with the "mistake" bread... not to worry. We don't waste a lot around here. I turned them into a huge platter of finger sandwiches...

and sent them to work with my husband. Now everyone gets to enjoy my efforts :)

Happy Kitchen Time, everyone!

The Recipe for PERFECT Hard-Cooked Eggs - EVERY TIME!

The Method ("recipe," if you will) for Perfect "Hard-Boiled" Eggs:

• Pick a pot with a tight fitting lid.
• Fill pot with approximately 1" water.
• Place eggs IN A SINGLE LAYER on a vegetable steamer basket that will sit just above the water. (Don't have a steamer? No problem! Neither do I :) Just crumple up some aluminum foil to keep the eggs above the water line. Still - single layer of eggs only!).
• Cover the pot.
• Bring water to a boil, then lower to a simmer.
• Steam 15 minutes*.
• Plunge into waiting ice-water bath. (Or just dump a few trays of ice cubes right into the pot with some cold tap water - that's what I do.)

Ta-Da!

*Time given is for standard Large eggs AT ROOM TEMPERATURE. Additional time may be necessary for eggs straight from the refrigerator, and other adjustments may be needed for larger or smaller eggs.

The result?

Delicate egg whites (no rubber here!), yolks done just to firm, no green ring (unless you skip the ice bath thing), and best of all - super easy to peel.

And I was going to buy Eggies for Momma K for Christmas! Silly me. I guess she'll be getting jingle socks again this year.

Along with a copy of this recipe, of course :)

Hard-Boiled Egg Failures... and Success?

My youngest stepdaughter decided to move in with us back in July (good news!), but she LOVES hard-boiled eggs (bad news - for her, anyway). When she went to boil up a few, I wanted to mention the altitude (she'd been living in Nebraska, aka "sea-level", with her mom), but I kept my mouth shut; maybe she'd have beginner's luck, maybe she knew something I didn't. I just stood back and watched.

Guess what happened?

Failure. Again. That left two of us greatly disappointed.

But I love my (not-so-little-anymore) Samii, and there's nothing I wouldn't do for her, including thinking about stealing my Mom's antique Sunbeam egg-cooker, which shielded me from this issue for so much of my life - lol. (I didn't do it, just thought about it - ha!)

I set out to get it right, once and for all - for Sam...

Without going into too much science, there IS a reason that eggs don't cook the same at high altitudes as at, or near, sea level. Here it is in brief: higher altitude = less sky. Sky = atmospheric pressure. Less pressure = longer cooking time. But 200 degrees is 200 degrees, right? Wrong! The pressure actually plays a role in "pushing" the heat into the object to be heated. (Which is why it takes 20 minutes or longer to cook pasta here - no joke.) With everything else, you just cook it longer, no big deal. So why doesn't longer cooking work with eggs???

I found no specific explanation behind why longer cooking doesn't work with eggs, but we all know that eggs are a very delicate structure. They don't like high heat. They also don't like long cooking times. In fact, eggs don't like being boiled at all! They appear to tolerate it at the times needed at sea-level, but they become a pouty and impossible child (no pun intended!) at the cook times needed at 7,200 feet. And much like a difficult child, when things aren't working out, it's time to try a different method. And that's when I discovered...

...Steamed Eggs!!! (Dramatic, movie-type booming music plays in the distance.)

It turns out that steam isn't affected by altitude (although the time it takes to create steam DOES change). But once you have steam, you have the perfect environment for the best "hard-boiled" eggs you'll ever make - at any altitude. And best of all, it's easy to steam cook eggs!

In Search of the Perfect Hard-Cooked Egg...

Our family LOVES eggs - scrambled, poached, "fried" - but, most of all: Deviled Eggs. At any family gathering, there was always a fight over the last deviled egg (a friendly fight, usually ending up with the last creamy ovoid of deliciousness being split). Thanksgiving before last, Momma K - the family's official deviled egg-maker - announced that she was no longer up to the challenge; the buying eggs well in advance so they'd be "old," then having to fight them out of their shells anyway, ending up with ugly shells that didn't live up to the promise of her beautiful deviled egg serving tray. (They still tasted awesome! But we understood where she was coming from.)

After two consecutive family gatherings without deviled eggs, I decided to be the next bearer of the eggs. The event was Easter; eggs went on sale well in advance and I searched out the oldest dates in the case that I could find. I left the eggs on the counter for two days before I boiled them, to help age them further. I cooked them exactly according to the precise instructions provided by my personal cooking icon: Alton Brown. Everything was going perfectly according to plan.

Easter egg coloring was a total hoot! We didn't have any small children, so all of the adults joined our two teenagers and the eggs went fast. Yoo-hoo! A few quick pix of our artistic creations, and it was time to whip out a batch (or three) of the devil'd bad boys.

What a total, complete disappointment! Despite my planning, cooking to the letter and high expectations, the eggs were nearly impossible to peel (even under running water), but WORSE: the whites were rubbery, there was a green sulphur ring around the yole AND, the centers weren't fully cooked. Yuck!

The next time, I tried the method recommended by my go-to "how-to" cookbook, The Joy of Cooking (every kitchen needs this gem). Again, failure, even though I followed the instructions for high altitude (we're at 7,200 feet or so above sea level).

The time after that, I searched the internet for "how to cook hard boiled eggs" and discovered there were basically three schools of thought for "hard-boiled" eggs (the proper designation is "hard-cooked," since at least one of the methods does not involve boiling the eggs - just so you know):
1. Place eggs in cold water, bring to boil, turn off heat, cover & let cook for designated time [the "Alton" method];
2. Place eggs in cold water, bring to boil and boil for designated time [the "Joy of Cooking" method]; and,
3. Bring water to boil, place eggs into water, and boil for designated time [another "Joy of Cooking" method].
Some sites said to add salt, some to add vinegar - tried each and both. I even bought an egg timer that gets placed in the pot with the egg and thus experiences everything that the eggs do and changes color to show what's going on inside the eggs. I tried less time, more time, faster cooling, no cooling. And I tried every possible combination of the above that I could think of. (I'm almost embarrassed to admit that, one night, I took a dozen eggs and cooked each one with various methods and combinations, then peeled each and opened them up; I ended up with a dozen failures - and a huge batch of egg salad.)

And that's when I GAVE UP.
Until last month...